Clash of the Rivals
by Empress Venus
Summary: Ash and friends meet Gary one morning, then Paul appears and the sparks begin to fly. Palletshipping, Ash/Gary.


**Clash of the Rivals**

* * *

A fairly random Palletshipping (AshxGary) fic, with a little Gary vs Paul action, hence the title. Contains a hefty amount of Paul bashing, so Paul fans should avoid this one. There's some Nando bashing too, I guess, but nobody cares about him anyway.

Game Freak owns Pokémon. I own nothing. So, read on and enjoy.

* * *

It was a bright and clear day as usual, and Ash, Brock and Dawn were walking along a very generic looking road with trees on one side. It looked exactly the same as the road they had been travelling the day before and the one the day before that too, but that didn't bother them. They would just keep walking to the next city, Ash hoping to find a gym and Dawn thinking of her next contest.

The only things that could possibly stall them from their goal of getting to the next place included a Team Rocket attack, a random bad person who wasn't Team Rocket doing something bad, an appearance by a minor recurring character, or even worse, something so terrifying it forced them to forget completely about where they were supposed to be going and drop everything all for the sake of helping somebody they had never met before.

This powerful force was known as a Character of the Day. Luckily for Ash, Brock and Dawn, there was no Character of the Day lying in wait, eager to ambush them with a problem that they couldn't be bothered to solve themselves. There were no random bad people around either. As for Team Rocket, they were around somewhere, but felt too lazy to try stealing Pikachu and would most likely end up playing some useless role where they did next to nothing until they were inexplicably sent blasting off for no reason.

That only left the minor recurring character. The nearest city was still more than a day's journey away, so it had to be the case. Whoever it was, they just prayed that it wasn't Nando, the dullest recurring character ever. They would all fall over and die of boredom the moment the bard opened that mouth of his and spewed a vitriol of dull babble that nobody wanted to hear.

Luckily, it seemed that Ash and his friends would not suffer such a terrible fate as they caught sight of somebody sitting on the road in front of a tree. This person just happened to be someone that they knew as well. Ash, Brock and Dawn walked up to the spiky-haired boy, who was so focused on slathering a tree with honey that he wasn't aware of them coming.

"That darn Professor Rowan," Gary Oak was muttering under his breath, scowling. "Making me put honey on the trees. I could have gone with the fossil team to check out ruins, but no. He tells me to do this."

"Hi, Gary!" Ash said in a cheerful voice, not at all bothered by the fact that Gary was talking to himself. Brock was wondering if Gary was going insane and Dawn was already going insane with glee herself as she looked at Gary.

"Oh, Ash, it's you." Gary got to his feet and smiled in a sexy way that caused all his fangirls to scream and faint. He reached up and ran a hand through his spiked reddish brown hair. "So, are you heading to the next city then? A gym battle?"

As Ash gazed at Gary's smiling face, he had completely forgotten all about gym battles. All he could think about was how sexy Gary was looking, despite the fact he seemed to have no apparent hormones, perhaps due to the fact he wasn't aging at all.

"What are you looking at?" Gary smirked, leaning forward and staring into Ash's dark brown eyes. "Is there something on my face?"

"Uh... ah..." Ash shook his head, a flush creeping over his face. Now he had these very strange feelings that he had never had before for some completely bizarre reason that seemed more like a lame excuse to set up a slash pairing between ten years olds. There had to be a better reason and that reason was heading their way right now.

"Oh my god! Gary!" Dawn leaped between them, breaking up the moment before anything else could happen. Her eyes sparkled and she grabbed his hands, a big smile on her face. "Do you have a poem for us? I would really like to hear one! That last one of yours was great. What was it, 'Best friends to the end', right?"

Gary distinctly remembered saying that to Ash, after that incident with Hunter J and the Shieldon. He also remembered feeling like he wanted to vomit right afterwards. Not only had it been slightly cheesy, but that had been a pretty strange time to be saying something so random. It wasn't even supposed to be a poem. The girl was completely insane, he realised.

Dawn was still babbling on senselessly about poems and Professor Oak and a bunch of stuff Gary didn't give a crap about. Ash was still staring at him, and Brock had a happy smile on his face. The reason for this was simple. He had spaced out and was daydreaming about Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny, because he was used to just standing there and doing nothing.

Finally, Ash had had enough. He jumped in front of Dawn, causing her to stop speaking. She glared at his back instead. "Hey, Gary, check out my badges!" He produced his badge case and shoved the shiny badges into Gary's face. "Isn't it great? I'm definitely going to win the Sinnoh League."

"Of course you are." Gary smiled in a way that was so obviously fake and patted Ash on the head.

Ash didn't realise he was being patronised and grinned as he put away the badge case. "Thanks, Gary, that really means a lot to me. I'm looking forwards to it. This time, I won't lose, I swear!" He raised a clenched fist in determination.

Gary let out a small sigh and turned away slightly, a despairing expression on his face. He'd changed his mind and become a Pokémon researcher after losing in two leagues, but Ash stubbornly went on despite losing in all of them as well. It was amazing how much confidence he had, considering his bad track record.

"I want a poem!" Dawn yelled. Piplup, who had been standing next to her the whole time because it hated being inside its Poké Ball and wanted to be the next Pikachu, looked at her and sighed in exasperation.

Speaking of Pikachu, he was making quick work of licking all the honey from the tree. Gary hadn't yet noticed, luckily for the electric mouse Pokémon.

Suddenly, the atmosphere began to change. A cold feeling had settled over everyone and clouds were rolling across the sky. The sound of feet crunching through the gravel could be heard, approaching the group of Pokémon trainers. They all turned to see a brooding emo standing there, not a trace of emotion showing upon his stony face. He glared straight at them with a penetrating, serious gaze.

"How strange. The weather changed so suddenly." Brock stared up at the sky. "It's almost as if something or someone caused this to happen, but that couldn't be possible, could it?"

"I'm not getting a poem, am I?" Dawn sighed and stared at the emo Pokémon trainer, a thought occurring to her. She perked up immediately. "Oh, hey, I have one. Lack of emotion, a cold personality, Paul is a robot. Oh, wait, that was a haiku."

"What do you want, Paul?" Ash asked, pointedly ignoring Dawn. Brock and Gary chose to ignore her as well. They were getting tired of her strange ramblings by now. "You sure like to pop out of nowhere." He paused, a troubled expression on his face. "You aren't stalking me, are you?"

"Of course I..." Paul broke off, shaking his head. Whoops, he'd almost given away his secret there. "Of course not. I have better things to do than stalking a weak and useless person like you." He stuck his nose in the air and looked as haughty as he possibly could.

"Who is this guy?" Gary asked, looking at Ash in confusion.

"That's Paul. He's, uh... a rival, I guess," Ash replied. "As well as a big jerk."

"Please don't call me a rival, because that's just insulting," Paul sniffed. Today, he felt like being a massive jerk for no reason as usual. "I sure don't consider you to be one either, since I am so much better than you are. You are just a weak and useless trainer."

"What are you insulting me for?" Ash yelled. "I never did anything to you!"

"It is because you are weak and puny, that I insult you for no reason," Paul replied, gazing at the clouds overhead with a very serious expression. "You are pathetic, your Pikachu is pathetic, your Turtwig is pathetic, your Chimchar is pathetic, your Staravia is pathetic, your Buizel is pathetic, your Gligar is pathetic... oh, yeah, and your mom is pathetic."

That did it. Paul had not only insulted him and his Pokémon with overuse of the word pathetic, but even gone and brought his mother into it. Ash should have flown into a furious rage and torn Paul apart from limb to limb, then left him a bloody heap on the ground, but something strange had happened to him.

In the midst of his encounter with the suddenly very hot and very sexy Gary, he had undergone the process of woobification. Ash's eyes welled up with tears and he started bawling, throwing himself upon Gary and crying into his shirt. "Gary!" he sobbed out. "Paul insulted... my mom!"

"I know, I heard it." Gary peeled the wailing Ash off him and dropped him to the ground, where he melted into a crying, shuddering heap of angst. Gary marched over to Paul and fixed him with a burning, angry stare. "You. Me. We are going to have a Pokémon battle right now."

"Who the heck are you?" Paul fixed him with a sharp stare.

"Someone you are going to wish you hadn't pissed off," Gary said in such a calm voice that he honestly didn't sound that mad, but his blazing eyes told otherwise. "You insulted Ash and I am not going to let you get away with that. Now send out your Pokémon or I will just have to teach you a lesson myself."

Ash was sitting up, his fists clasped together as he watched Gary in awe. Gary just looked so undeniably hot, bravely defending his honour like that. Magical shoujo bubbles flew around him and his eyes wobbled with tears. "Gary," he whispered in a reverent voice.

"What is the matter with Ash?" Brock raised an eyebrow. "He's been reduced to a wimp all of a sudden."

"It's the power of slash," Dawn said seriously. "It is the very important plot development that will lead to true love. I can't wait to see what happens next."

"I see, you want to defend that pitiful excuse for a Pokémon trainer?" Paul looked at Gary with faint amusement. "I bet you are every bit as useless a trainer as he is. This should be easy." He took a Poké Ball and threw it. "Go, Torterra!"

Gary took one look at the large Pokémon, recognising it as a grass type. He threw one of his own Poké Balls. "Come on out, Magmortar." The large magma Pokémon appeared, looking positively badass as it stood there.

"Eh?" Ash immediately had his Pokédex out, looking up the Magmortar.

"Magmortar," said the Pokédex. "It evolves from Magmar. And stuff."

Ash put away the Pokédex, looking surprised. "Eh? When did Gary evolve his Magmar?" He wasn't even aware Gary had brought it to Sinnoh in the first place.

"Heh, is that really all you have?" Paul liked to think he and his Pokémon were better than everyone else. "Torterra, use Frenzy Plant."

"Magmortar, Fire Blast." Gary looked faintly exasperated. Apparently, Paul wasn't at all concerned about type advantages.

Magmortar barely noticed the grass type attack. It blew out a stream of fire, that formed the shape of a cross, and it slammed straight into Torterra.

Five minutes later, after repeated powerful attacks, Torterra was lying on its side and looking badly charred, while Magmortar only looked slightly beaten up.

Paul recalled his fainted Pokémon and turned away, a cold expression on his face. "I have better things to do than continue such a dull battle."

"Hey!" Gary exclaimed as Paul started walking away. "Don't just walk away like that." Of course, Paul ignored him. "Well, if you're chickening out like that, I guess that means I won!" Paul didn't appear to hear him despite the raised voice.

Gary walked back to the group, a satisfied smile on his face. That had felt so good, he was feeling pretty happy and didn't even care when he saw that the honey tree was looking suspiciously clean. Pikachu was just licking the last of the honey off his paws. The weather was even bright and sunny again, the clouds having disappeared the moment Paul was out of sight.

Ash ran up to Gary and grabbed his hands, his eyes wobbling with tears. Sparkles and hearts flew around him as he gazed up at Gary with a lovestruck expression. "Gary, thank you so much for standing up for me like that. Suddenly, I've just realised that I am hopelessly in love with you and I want to be with you forever and ever."

"Ash, I feel the same way," Gary said in a soft voice, as romantic music began to play. "I have loved you for a long time and I am so glad that it has finally come to this."

The two melted in a soft kiss filled with passion. Brock, Dawn, Pikachu and Piplup stared at them, trying to comprehend exactly what was going on. Then Dawn started squeeing and saying how "kawaii" it was.

"Gary," Ash said as the two drew apart. "When we're older, can we have babies?"

"Uh, why don't we talk about that when we're older?" Gary suggested, a bead of sweat rolling down his head as he smiled awkwardly. Ash nodded, seeming satisfied, then the two embraced again.

"Are they going to do that all day?" Brock muttered. He was still trying to figure out why two ten year olds were confessing love to each other and kissing so passionately. It didn't make much sense to him.

"I think it's cute... I mean, kawaii!" Dawn grinned. Being ten herself, she had no idea how absurd it really was.


End file.
